System and method for managing a purchase of a product from a vendor

Abstract

A method of managing a purchase of a product from a vendor includes receiving a plurality of purchase requests from a plurality of buyers, generating a collective purchase order based on the plurality of received purchase requests, where the collective purchase order includes information indicative of each product sought for purchase by the plurality of buyers, and information indicative of a delivery location for the products to be purchased, submitting the collective purchase order to the vendor to effect purchase of the products, and allocating portions of the delivery cost amongst the plurality of buyers in accordance with a predetermined allocation criteria.

Description

CLAIM TO PRIORITY [0001] This patent application claims priority to Singapore Patent Application No. 200605173-4, which was filed on Aug. 1, 2006 (inventor: Tze Chuah Koh). The contents of Singapore Patent Application No. 200605173-4 are hereby incorporated by reference into this patent application as if set forth herein in full. TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] This patent application describes a system and method for managing a purchase of a product from a vendor, and in particular, but not limited to, managing a purchase of a product from an Internet accessible vendor. BACKGROUND [0003] The Internet is widely used by consumers as a convenient medium by which to purchase all manner of products advertised via retail web sites. For instance, well known Internet vendors such as Amazon.com provide consumers with access to a searchable catalog of products for sale, and, an online interface through which products can be purchased by buyers at the click of a button. [0004] For a consumer, the cost...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0087] It would therefore be apparent to a person skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein may provide certain benefits over the prior art. Advantageously, the embodiments may assist in alleviating the delivery cost component per buyer participating in any given collective purchase order, and therefore, the total cost incurred per buyer in acquiring a product online. That is, the embodiments may conveniently exploit the delivery cost criteria used to calculate the delivery cost component by grouping purchased products together for delivery to a single location. In contrast, with prior art approaches the vendor has generally resorted to lowering the cost of a specific product itself in response to demand for that product. This may not be desirable for the vendo

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, prior art approaches tend to suffer from certain disadvantages.

Thus, consumers seeking to acquire relatively less popular products from the vendor generally miss out on the cost-saving benefits obtained from participating in group purchases.

Secondly, p

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